[100 Emerging Women Leaders] This Dia Mirza-backed brand manufactures chemical-free, organic clothing for children

Meghna Kishore was living in London when her daughter was born. As a new mom, she wanted to give the best of everything to her child. While finding good quality clothes was not a hard task in London, it became difficult when she moved back to India.

“I had to rely on my relatives to get clothes for my daughter from London when they visited me in India,” Kishore recalls.

“Moreover, we found from our research that most of the clothes for children in India have huge amounts of chemicals that do not go away with washing,” says Kishore’s sister Barkha Bhatnagar, who is the co-founder of Greendigo. 

The sisters decided to address the market gap. They switched from their corporate lives and began their entrepreneurial journey with Greendigo in August 2019. The Mumbai-based startup is an organic clothing brand that offers clothing for premature babies and children up to the age of six years. 

In September 2022, actor, producer and an advocate of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, Dia Mirza, decided to back the sisters in their venture as an investor.

But the transition from a corporate career to that of an entrepreneur was not smooth. From finding the right supply partners to getting the seal and certification of authenticity, the journey was a roller coaster ride for the sisters.

What made them persevere is to introduce clothing which was truly organic in nature.

“Greenwashing is rampant in the apparel industry. Not everyone is on board with being truly ethical when it comes to organic clothing. Our initial challenge was to find like-minded suppliers and vendors because we wanted to walk the talk and not just tick the boxes by paying lip service to be sustainable and organic. We wanted to do everything ethically,” Bhatnagar says. 

They find themselves lucky for having a support system of family and friends who have helped them overcome challenges that may stem from biases against women. However, they feel that more women are required in senior-level positions in organisations.

“While we have always walked shoulder to shoulder with men in our career, we do feel there are very few women in the boardroom and women entrepreneurs. We want to see more of them,” says Kishore. 

The sisters’ advice to upcoming women leaders is to take the plunge. “Women should give it a shot, no matter how big or small their idea is. There should not be any regrets later,” Bhatnagar concludes.